Jacques-philippe Le Bas Biography
Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, or Lebas (Paris, 8 July 1707 – Paris, 14 April 1783), was a French engraver and designer. Trained at the school of Nicolas-Henri Tardieu and Antoine Herisset, he worked mainly in Paris between 1730 and 1783, directing one of the most important ateliers in the city and becoming one of the most famous French engravers of the time. In 1743 he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, with an engraving from a work by Nicolas Lancret (Gallant Conversation), and five years later to the Rouen Academy. In 1781 he was appointed advisor to the Academy and in 1782 he acquired the title of engraver to the king. He created engravings representing genre, historical, Christian-religious subjects, landscapes and portraits, including over 500 plates by Flemish and Dutch masters, such as David Teniers the Younger, Philips Wouwerman and French, such as Claude Joseph Vernet. He also made engravings representing the ruins of the most important monuments of Greece, created in a very precise and detailed way and collected in a work divided into two parts: in the first the monuments are considered from a historical point of view, in the second from a architectural view. This work was published in 1758 in the form of an atlas. Le Bas's style is influenced by Gérard Audran, as can be seen from the engraving The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist by Mola, a work which consolidated his reputation in the professional field. He was also able to convey the style and style of the masters from whose works he made his prints. He was the first, after Rembrandt, who often used, in addition to the burin, the drypoint technique, which was then further perfected by some of his students.
